Irrigation timers are used to control the delivery of water to sprinkler heads, driplines, etc. Most irrigation timers are set up to deliver water to sets of sprinklers in different watering zones to ensure that the sprinklers are provided with adequate water pressure. This also permits the different zones to be watered for different periods of time at different frequencies and at different times of day. Irrigation timers determine when and for how long water is delivered to each set of the sprinklers and actuate the irrigation valves in a predetermined or selected sequence to accomplish this.
One of the problems with conventional household-type irrigation systems is that they rely on a combination of sliding or rotating switches, push buttons and lighted displays perform and verify various functions, including setting the time of day, when to water, how long to water, etc. These conventional systems often rely on some type of common readout or display and the use of multifunction buttons, switches or other user inputs. The way conventional timers are designed, especially the use of multifunction user inputs, reduces the ease of use for the owner. This is especially true because after first being programmed, programming may not be necessary again for six months; because programming conventional irrigation timers is not necessarily intuitive, the user often needs to find and then re-review the instruction manual to ensure that programming is done properly.
The present invention is directed to an irrigation timer which substantially eliminates the complexity which is often involved in the use of conventional irrigation timers.
A first aspect of the invention is directed to an irrigation timer of the type including a controller coupleable to a power source and a user input providing an input to the controller. The controller includes an output terminal coupleable to an irrigation valve actuator and an internal day-of-week and time-of-day clock. The controller is pre-programmed with a predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting so that upon actuation, the clock automatically begins running at the predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting. For example, if the initialization setting is Sunday, 6:00 PM, and if actuation occurs by plugging in the irrigation timer, then the internal clock is automatically set at Sunday, 6:00 PM by plugging in the timer, preferably on Sunday at about 6:00 PM. Use of a predetermined, known initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting makes the irrigation timer much easier to use than conventional irrigation timers.
Another aspect of the invention is the method by which the clock of the irrigation timer is initialized. A predetermined initialization day-of-week and start time-of-day setting is determined and then the irrigation timer is actuated on the same day and about the same time as the predetermined day-of-week and time-of-day setting. The determining step is typically carried out by obtaining the setting from written instructional information associated with the irrigation timer.
A further aspect of the invention relates to an irrigation timer including a controller coupleable to a power source and having an output signal terminal and user input buttons operably coupled to the controller by which a user can control watering functions of the controller. Each of the user input buttons has a single, preset function so that no user input button is a multifunction button. The elimination of multifunction buttons, or other user inputs, makes programming the irrigation timer much simpler and helps to make the programming essentially intuitive.
Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiment has been set forth in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.